“The agency had no problem having me working 12- or 13- or 14-hour shifts as an analyst, but would not allow me the opportunities to lead, because ‘my loyalties would be divided [as a mother]’.”

Fran Moore, a retired CIA senior officer, spoke with FF4T about her experience cracking the glass ceiling in the CIA, sorting though vast amounts of data in the internet age, and her personal definition of success.

Biography:

Fran Moore is a retired Central Intelligence Agency senior officer with 32 years of leadership and intelligence analysis experience. She served in a number of senior positions at the agency, including most recently as Director for Intelligence from 2010 to 2014. Fran now runs FPM Consulting, LLC, and serves on the board of Threat Deterrence Capital, guiding businesses that support US intelligence, security, and law enforcement needs.

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“I was told, 'We think your loyalties will be divided between home and family and work, and we’d rather have someone who we know can give 100%.'” (2:10)

“If you think about how hard national security challenges are for the US, if you don’t have the smartest mind regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, or creed at the table, you’re not actually going to be able to solve those hard problems” (7:45)

“The agency was out ahead in some respect for technologies that would allow us to sort through that data and bin it so that the most important information rose to the top. ... [However,] the deluge of volume [of information] has always outpaced our brilliance at those concept maps [for organization] to pull the most information forward.” (16:45)

“If you’re an expert on Russia or China, you know enormous amounts. Sifting all of that big head, that big brain, into the tiny thimble-full of the most important things you want to put in front of a busy policy maker that’s relevant and useful to the decisions they are making is tough.” (17:00)

“In business it’s all about mitigating risk and exploiting opportunity, well what intelligence analysis does is that tradeoff for policy rather than for the bottom line.” (18:10)